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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

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Shelf _.,,_ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Ik 



NUMERALS 



— OF THE — 



BIBLE. 

V 

888. - 



en-. - ^. ^ . ^ .. \>^CK'-V 






^ % 1879. .:;^ 



FOR SALE AT THE 

WESTERN CHURCH OFFICE,' 

MILWAUKEE, 
AND LEADING CHURCH BOOK-STORES. 



% 



■^t 



Entertd according^ to Act of Congress, in the year 1S79, by 

(U^ . James A. Upjohn, /, 

In the office of the Librarian of Cong^ress at Washing-ton. 



JvIiLLER & Smith, 

PRINTERS, 

365 EAST WATER ST., MILWAUKEE. 

1S79. 



888. 



Unity of purpose is seen throughout the 
various Scriptures. Written by many men, 
in many centuries, they have but one author; 
and that author presents but one subject. Of 
one person, one single mind is speaking. 
Prophecy and type, history and ceremony, 
all point to Christ; and the fragmentary 
work of different ages is stamped with the 
seal of Divine authorship. But the super- 
natural mind is further revealed in the adap- 
tation of the numerical value of the letters 
to the thought contained in the words. These 
letters, when read as numerals, bring in the 
thought, as well as by forming the words. 
The letters added together, conform to their 
verbal import. And beneath this mystic 
veil may be traced the form of the Son of 
Man. 

The Greek word for Jesus is made up of 
six letters; their numerical values being re- 
spectively 8, lo, 200, 70, 400, and 200, mak- 



ing In all 888. This 888 we are to look for 
in those passages in the Old Testament, 
which have marked reference to Christ. 
The event in the life of a character, which 
peculiarly and best foreshadows something 
in the history of Jesus, is most likely to be 
the hiding place of this mystic number. 

Let us begin with the Annunciation of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary. The most distinct 
foreshadowing of that event is the announce- 
ment made to Manoah's wife, "The Angel 
of the Lord appeared unto the woman, and 
said unto her. Behold now, thou art barren 
and bearest not; but thou shalt conceive and 
bear a son." Judges xiii, 3. The accom- 
plishment of this promise was, humanly 
speaking, impossible; for the woman was 
barren. And Mary, having not even the 
semblance of a possibility which the Shun- 
amite woman had in her impotent husband, 
(see 2 Kings, iv.) said unto the angel, "How 
shall this be, seeing I know not a man. 
(Luke i, 3, 4.) The annunciation of the 
Shunamite was by a prophet; and therefore 
is not so good a type as the annunciation of 
the wife of Manoah, which was by an angel. 
And the announcement of the birth of Isaac, 



5 

though made by God, and of John Baptist 
though made by the angel Gabriel, failed in 
this respect, that in both cases it was made to 
the husband. The annunciation of Manoah's 
wife thus far most closely resembles the an- 
nunciation of the Blessed Virgin. But the 
excellence of this type consists chiefly in the 
consequent action of Manoah. He was not 
satisfied with the word of his wife. Like 
Joseph, "he thought on these things." He 
was doubtful of his wife's fidelity. In 
Joseph's mind there was no doubt, and he 
was minded to put away her to whom he 
was espoused. The distress of these two 
men was allayed by a second visit of the 
angel. The angel of the Lord appeared unto 
Joseph in a dream, saying, "Joseph, fear not 
to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that 
which is conceived in her is of the Holy 
Ghost. Matt, i, 20. And the perplexity of 
Manoah prompted the prayer, "O my Lord, 
let the man of God which Thou didst send 
come again unto us." Judges xiii, 8. Man- 
oah questioned the angel who was sent in 
answer to his prayer: "Art thou the man 
that spakest to the woman? And he said, 
I am." Judges xiii- 11. Manoah, not per- 



ceiving the angelic nature of his visitor, was 
enlightened by his wondrous works. "For it 
came to pass, when the flame went up to- 
ward heaven from off the altar, that the an- 
gel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the 
altar. * * * Then Manoah knew that it 
was an angel of the Lord." The similarity 
comes out in this angelic announcement, not 
only to the women, but to both the men; re- 
sulting in the restored confidence of the men 
in their wives. The annunciation of Manoah's 
wife, is the best type of the annunciation of 
the Blessed Virgin Mary, because in each 
case doubt, perplexity, and sorrow filled the 
heaft of the husband, and those doubts were 
removed by a second visit of the angel, and a 
repetition of the prophecy. That the angel 
came to Manoah was in answer to his prayer. 
His prayer was the turning point in the ac- 
tion; and in his prayer we find the number 
888. The words, "Thou didst send let him 
come again," are exactly 888. 

There are many resemblances between the 
infancy of Moses and that of Jesus. The times 
were politically alike. When Moses was born 
there had arisen a new king over Egypt, 
which knew not Joseph, (Ex. i. 8.) and at the 



7 

birth of Christ, Herod the usurper, and a 
foreigner, was king of the Jews. In both 
cases, as regarded the Jews,there was a stran- 
ger on the throne. In the hearts of both 
these stranger kings there was jealousy, and 
suspicion and fear. The new king over 
Egypt said to his people, "Behold the people 
of the children of Israel are more and might- 
ier than we;" and of the other stranger mon- 
arch it is written^"When Herod the king heard 
these things he was troubled." Matt, ii, 3. 
Their evil forebodings prompted the same 
policy. Pharaoh said, "Come on, let us deal 
wisely with them," let us oppress them with 
subtlety: and Herod privily called the wise 
men and said, "Go and search dilligently for 
the young child; and when ye have found 
him bring me word again that I may come 
and worship him also." But we know that 
he was acting deceitfully; for the wise men 
were warned of God not to return to Herod. 
He was "mocked" by the wise men ; as was 
Pharaoh by the midwives; and both the ex- 
asperated monarchs issued royal edicts of ex- 
termination. "Pharaoh charged all his peo- 
ple, saying, every son that is born ye shall 
cast into the river." Ex. i, 22. And Herod 



8 

sent forth and slew all the children that were 
in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, 
from two years old and under. Yet amid the 
slaughter of the Innocents, Jesus was not the 
victim of the savage butcher, nor did Moses 
share the watery grave of so many Hebrew 
infants. The mother of Moses hid him three 
months; about the time that Jesus remained 
unobserved in Bethlehem. For the Magi 
probably did not visit him until after the pre- 
sentation in the temple, forty days after his 
birth. And, allowing time for the inquiry 
of the wise men, and for Herod's waiting for 
their return, we may reasonably fill up the 
interval. At the end of three months Moses, 
in an ark of bulrushes, was laid in the flags 
by the river's brink, and was found and 
adopted by Pharaoh's daughter; and after 
the departure of the wise men, "the angel of 
the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, say- 
ing. Arise and take the young child and His 
mother and flee into Egypt." The royal 
fugitives wandered by the river's bank, from 
which the mother and sister had watched the 
future king of Jeshurun. The words in the 
original for "She laid it in the flags" (Ex. ii. 
3,) are exactly 888. 



9 

Out of Egypt God called His Son, and 
directed the faltering steps of Joseph to dis- 
tant and unnoticed Nazareth. The obscurity 
of this dwelling place, suggested to His me- 
tropolitan enemies the epithet^ the JVazare?ze/ 
but their scorn was unwittingly fulfilling pro- 
phecy, for the word Nazareth is derived from 
netser^ meaning a branch; a title applied by 
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, to the Mes- 
siah, When Pilate wrote on the cross, "Je- 
sus the Nazarene," He was saying what the 
prophet had written, "Behold the man whose 
name is the BRANCH." Zech. vi. 12. In 
the rural, leafy seclusion of the town of 
branches, God caused the branch of right- 
eousness to grow up until at the Epiphany 
of His childhood in the temple, flashed forth 
for a moment His "quick understanding," as- 
tonishing all that heard Him; "the branch of 
the Lord for beauty and glory," Is. iv, 2; a 
vision like that which cheered Jacob in the 
son of his old age, whom he characterized as 
a bough of fruits. That fruitful bough had, 
in spring-time, put forth the swelling buds; 
the youthful dreams of the son of Rebecca, 
Jacob's first and only choice, imaged forth 
a natural fitness and superiority; they were 



lO 

a germ of greatness; and they also intimated 
the leading of the Divine Spirit. It was the 
Coming Man, dreaming of Destiny; *'My 
sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, be- 
hold, your sheaves stood round about, and 
made obeisance to my sheaf. * * * Be- 
hold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, be- 
hold, the sun and the moon and the eleven 
stars made obeisance to me." Gen. xxxvii. 
And so when Jesus was not found among his 
kinsfolk and acquaintance; when he revealed 
His consciousness of descent from "the High 
and Holy One that inhabiteth Eternity," in 
the answer. Wist ye not that I must be in 
my Father's business (or house), the buds 
were swelling in that Branch who was to 
bear the glory, and to sit and rule upon His 
throne. See Zech. vi, i 3. Subsequent years 
did not belie these early indications. The 
youthful development of both was full of 
promise. Jesus increased in wisdom and 
stature; and Joseph was of a good figure, and 
favored his well favored mother. (See Gen. 
xxxix, 6, and xxix, 17.) Jesus increased in 
favor with God and man; and the Lord was 
with Joseph and he found grace in Potiphar's 
sight. And when they mounted up to 



II 

meridian manhood, the blazing splendor of 
their public career was the gradual growth 
from those bright darting dawnings of genius 
which had gilded their morning as the many 
variegated fringes decked the coat of Joseph. 
Joseph filled the granaries of Egypt against 
a seven years' famine; "he gathered corn as 
the sand of the sea very much until he left 
off numbering for it was without number. 
* * * And all countries came into Egypt to 
Joseph to buy corn." He supplied sustenance 
to his famished brethren, and to his father; 
reversing the law that parents should lay up 
for their children, and not children for their 
parents. 

Truly a bough of fruits was Joseph a fruit- 
ful bough by a well whose branches run over 
the wall, a type of Jehovah's servant, the 
Branch, when like a laden bending bough 
whose branches find support on the wall, Jesus 
wearied with his journey "sat thus on the 
well." John iv. It was on account of the fruit- 
fulness of His ministry that he had leftjudea. 
To avoid the envv of the Pharisees who had 
heard that he was making and baptizing 
more disciples than John, he cometh to a city 
of Samaria which is called Sychar; the same 



12 

place to which Joseph, hated by his brethren, 
came when a certain man found him, and, 
behold, he was wandering in the field. Gen. 
xxxvii, 15. Their paths converge and come 
together as if by the attractive force of mutual 
sympathy and likeness to each other. And 
the conversation at the well presents features 
resembling Joseph's experience in Egypt. 
For as the lustful woman was the means of 
bringing him before Pharaoh, so the woman 
of Samaria who had had five husbands and was 
living with a paramour (just what Potiphar's 
wife wished to make of Joseph) was the 
means of bringing the men of the city to Je- 
sus. She flung away lust when she left her 
waterpot and Joseph left his garment fleeing 
from lust. (See St. Augustine in loco,) No 
sooner bad Jesus made the woman compre- 
hend what that living water was which He 
had to give, a well of water springing up in- 
to everlasting life, than he explained to His 
disciples what that meat was which He had 
and they knew not of. And as soon as 
Joseph had passed through the ordeal 
brought upon him by the woman, who acted 
as if she had no husband, and had come forth 
unharmed and adjudged innocent, he advised 



13 

Pharaoh to lay up a store of food. He fore- 
tells seven years of plenty, the fields seven 
times white for the harvest, and Jesus shows 
the fields white for the harvest four months in 
advance. Jesus is fervent for the ingather- 
ing, and is arranging to send out workmen to 
reap, and Joseph urged Pharaoh to appoint 
oflicers over the land and take up the fifth 
part of the land of Egypt in the seven plen- 
tious years. 

Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath- 
paaneah, the salvation or Saviour of the age, 
and Jesus, at that central spot of Palestine, 
from that oecumenical pulpit, the Teachers 
Oak, (Elon Moreh, Gen. xii, 6,) where 
Abram had built his first altar, where Joshua 
had set up a great stone under an oak for a 
witness unto the gathered tribes, (Joshua 
xxiv, 26.) at this place, Jesus sitting thus on 
the well (it was about the sixth hour, the full- 
ness of time)proclaimed Himself the Messiah, 
and announced the hour of oecumenical wor- 
ship, when neither in that mountain, nor at 
Jerusalem, should they worship the Father, 
but the shadows having vanished, and locali- 
ties being ignored, men should worship Him 
in spirit and in truth. 



H 

Thus was Jesus also, as He "sat thus on the 
well," a fruitful bough by a well; to Him 
was applicable the name Joseph, which 
means Increase, augmentation. The bless- 
ing of the patriarch included Him also. And 
may not Jacob have had in mind this very 
well, shaded with overhanging branches, 
when he blessed the son of his old age. For 
it was to this son that he had allotted this 
portion; a suitable gift to him, whom the 
archers had sorely grieved and shot at and 
hated, but w^hose bow abode in strength, for 
it was the portion which Jacob had taken out 
of the hand of the Amorite with his sword 
and with his bow. See Gen. xlviii, 22. And 
may he not have had also Jesus in his pro- 
phetic soul; for the words, "Joseph is a fruit- 
ful bough" are exactly 888. 



As Joseph represents the fruitfulness of 
our Lord's ministry, so Joshua sets forth its 
conquests. On the same day of the same 
month, that the people passed over Jordan 
right against Jericho, the city of palm trees, 
Jesus made His triumphant entry into Jeru- 
salem, his way strewn with palm branches. 



15 

"The whole multitude of the disciples began 
to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice 
for all the mighty works that they had seen 
saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in 
the name of the Lord ; peace in heaven and 
glory in the highest." (Luke xix, 38.) And 
"on that - day (centuries before) the Lord 
magnified Joshua in the sight of all 
Israel." (Joshua iv, 14). Both these 
men, bearing the same name, were 
victorious leaders. Joshua assailed the 
kingdoms of Canaan, demolishing strong- 
holds, scattering confederacies, slaying kings; 
and under the leadership of Jesus, the King- 
dom of heaven suftered violence, and the vio- 
lent took it bv force. This warrior at the 
gate of Nain, with a breath, unhorsed the 
king of terrors; at his bidding the man, 
whose right hand was withered, stretched it, 
forth, and it was restored whole as the other; 
the eyes of the blind w^ere opened; the ears 
of the deaf unstopped; the tongue of the 
speechless became eloquent. The five senses 
of Lazarus, He allowed to corrupt in the 
tomb, for the greater confirmation of the 
faith of His disciples and of the Jews, as 
Joshua entombed the five kings alive, until 



i6 

the pursuit was finished. And then as Josh- 
ua, returning, commanded, "Open ye the 
mouth of the cave, and bring out those five 
kings unto me out of the cave," (Joshua x, 
23,) so Jesus, the Resurrection and 
the Life, at the grave of him who 
had been dead four days, said, "Take 
ye away the stone * * * ^j^^j cried 
with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth, (John 
xi, 43). To this conqueror, "the seventy re- 
turned again with joy, saying. Lord, even 
the devils are subject unto us through thy 
name. And he said unto them I beheld 
Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold 
I give unto you power to tread on serpents 
and scorpions, and over all the power of the 
enemy ; and nothing shall by any means hurt 
you (Luke x, 17-19). And the stern soldier 
> said "to the captains of the men of war that 
went witli him. Come near, put your feet 
upon the necks of these kings * * * and 
Joshua said unto them, Fear not nor be dis- 
mayed, be strong and of good courage; for 
thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies 
against whom ye fight." This erect, fear- 
less, blameless soldier prefigured the untir- 
ing, resistless march of Jesus over that same 



17 

country. But Joshua never displayed the in- 
trepidity of Jesus in His anabasis up to Jeru- 
salem, where He prophesied they should 
mock, and scourge and crucify Him. 

Like to each other in their victories, they 
were both successors to Moses. There was 
a transfer of office from Moses to Joshua, 
and from Moses to Christ. "The law vv^as 
S^iven by Moses, but grace and truth came 
by Jesus Christ (John i, 17). The relations 
of Moses to Joshua, and of John Baptist to 
Jesus, present many points of resemblance. 
Moses was like John Baptist, the voice of 
one crying in the wilderness. John declared, 
"He that cometh after me is preferred before 
me;" and Joshua was preferred to Moses, 
who desired to lead the children of Israel 
over Jordan. In each case the greater was 
set apart by the less. When Jesus came 
unto John to be baptized of him, "John for- 
bad him saying, I have need to be baptized 
of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus 
answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so 
now; for thus it becometh us to fulfill all 
righteousness. Then he suffered him" (Matt 
iii, 13-15). Moses laid his hands on Joshua, 
and, as a result, Joshua was full of the spirit 



i8 

of wisdom. And when Jesus came up out 
of the water, lo, the heavens were opened 
unto him, and John saw the spirit of God de- 
scending hke a dove and lighting upon him. 
Now this pubHc consecration, and this mani- 
festation of Divine approval, in either case, 
was for the same purpose. Moses was com- 
manded to set Joshua before all the people 
and give him a charge in their sight, and ad- 
ded Jehovah, thou shalt put of thine honour 
upon him that all the congregation of the 
children of Israel may be obedient. And at 
the baptism of Jesus there came a voice from 
heaven, which said. This is my beloved son 
in whom I am well pleased. And after 
Moses had talked with Jesus on the mount 
there came a voice out of the cloud, saying. 
This is my beloved son : hear, / ^, be obedient 
to him. All eyes were fixed on the chosen 
captain, Joshua, and on the great captain of 
our Salvation, by their conspicuous dedica- 
tion to office. And the consecration of 
Joshua is fragrant with that Name which is 
''as ointment poured forth," for the words, 
"charge Joshua," (Deut. iii, 28) are w^ritten 
in the Hebrew with the eth^ and are 888, 



19 

Joshua's consecration to victory atld his 
sweeping extermination of enemies depict 
the preying, devouring, prevaih'ng onset of 
the Lion of the tribe of Judah coming up 
out of Jordan, to conquer sin, Satan and 
death. But though a conqueror, Jesus' 
heart was not steeled. Joshua's eye had no 
pity, when he surveyed the walls of Jericho, 
which were to fall down flat; but Jesus, 
though He could not hold back the sword, 
hanging over the accursed city, of which one 
stone should not be left on another, was 
overcome with grief. His eagle eye was 
dimmed, and ran down with tears over the 
rigid features of Justice; and the prophetic 
voice of Vengeance was broken with sobs: 
*'If thou hadst known even thou at least in 
this thy day the things that belong unto thy 
peace." 

This lamentation over the deluded city 
finds a response in the paternal anguish 
of the warrior monarch, from whom Ab- 
salom had stolen the hearts of the men of 
Israel; "David went up by the ascent of 
Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his 
head covered, and he went barefoot;" (i 
Sam. XV. 30;) not like Jesus, however, a soli- 



20 

tary mourner amid rejoicing multitudes. 
"All the county wept with a loud voice. * * 
All the i^eople with him covered every man 
his head, and they went up ^veeping as they 
went up." The fugitive father, through his 
tears, was looking back on those walls taken 
from the Jebusites who had boasted, "Except 
thou take away the blind and the lame, thou 
shalt not come in hither;" looking back on 
those fortifications which he himself had 
added, the beloved Jerusalem, which he 
would rather lose than have suffer, for he 
said, "Let us make speed and depart * * 
lest Absalom smite the city with the edge 
of the sword;" and Jesus was looking down 
on the same city enlarged and beautified with 
costly buildings. His populous capital, 
whose children he yearned to gather to- 
gether "as a hen gathereth her chickens un- 
der her wings." To David's care and grief 
was added penitence, because he had not 
known the things that belonged unto his 
peace; there was no self-accusation in the 
lament of the Prince of Peace, "because thou 
knewest not the day of thy visitation." On 
the same mountain the two monarchs min- 
gled their tears over the city they could not 



21 



save. The words, "And David went up by 
the ascent of Olivet, going up and weeping, 
(2 Sam. XV. 30,) are the exact number of our 
Lord's Name, 888. 



There is another spot on that Mount 
Olivet consecrated by the sorrow of Jesus ; 
remote from the highway, unfrequented by 
the shouting multitudeSj the nocturnal resort 
of Him, who had not where to lay His head. 
In the dell of the walled Gethsemane, He 
offered up prayers and supplications with 
strong crying and tears; tears pressed out of 
his whole body, as it were, clots of blood 
forced out by his soul, exceeding sorrowful, 
even unto death. He sought sympathy from 
those who had promised to go with Him to 
prison and to death, but drowsiness and des- 
pondency had weakened their love, and he 
found them sleeping. It was the completed 
study of the artist in the Song of songs; "I 
am come into my garden, my sister, spouse. 
I have gathered my myrrh," (symbol of 
death.) Sol. Song v. i. But to this mid- 
night garden greeting, there is an irrespon- 
sive listlessness; "I sleep, but my heart 



22 

waketh:-' the same struggle between flesh 
and spirit, which the Saviour found in His 
chosen companions. ''The spirit indeed is 
wnUing, but the flesh is weak." ''I sleep but 
my heart waketh; it is the voice of my be- 
loved that knocketh, Open to me, my sister, 
my love, my dove, my perfect one; for my 
head is filled with dew, my locks with the 
drops of the night." But the bride has dis- 
robed herself: and with the putting oflf of 
her garment, has divested her heart of love; 
"I have put oflf my coat; how shall I put it 
on?" Neither did the disciple w^hom Jesus 
loved arouse at the thrice rene\ved knocking 
of those piteous accents, ''What, could ye 
not watch with me one hour?" But after he 
had withdrawn Himself and was gone, then 
they sought Him, following into the judg- 
ment hall; and there the soldiers tore oflf the 
veil from Peter, saying, "Surely thou art one 
of His disciples." It was the same treatment 
that the remorseful bride experienced ; "The 
watchmen that went about the city found 
me, they smote me, they wounded me; the 
keepers of the wall took away my veil from 
me." Tardy the devotion, unfeeling the 
apathy of the bride, and of the disciple. Un- 



23 
shared the agony in the garden of Him who 
thought it not good to be alone. This is the 
same picture as the other; only the shades 
are deepened ; the night is more dark. It is 
the one garden, Gethsemane. The words 
"voice of my beloved knocking, Open to me" 
(Sol. Song V. 2) are 888. 



In Gethsamane, the press of olives, the 
marks of the agony and bloody sweat had 
stained His visage and form, as the spirting 
juice empurples the wine-press. As He had 
been left alone in His watch, so He was 
careful that He alone should be taken by the 
husbandmen, who had said among them- 
selves, "This is the heir; come, let us kill 
him, and let us seize on his inheritance." 
(Matt, xxi., 38.) This murderous seizure is 
delineated in Ahab's acquisition of a vine- 
yard, w^iich Naboth refused to exchange, or 
sell, because it was the inheritance of his 
fathers. His neighbor's regard for God's 
agrarian law soured the rebellious and mo- 
rose temper of covetous Ahab; and "he laid 
him down upon his bed, and turned away 
his face, and would eat no bread." (i Kings 



24 

xxi, 48.) To give him what the sole proprie- 
tor, God, denied, (see Lev. xxv. 33,) is the 
prompt promise of his imperious wife. A 
worshipper of Baal, she orders a public rec- 
ognition and enforcement of the law of God, 
whose prophets she had cut off, in order to 
get rid of the pious and strict observer of 
that law, who would not yield what it for- 
bade. She uses the king's signature and seal, 
and pulls the wires, attached to which, for 
puppets, are the elders and nobles of the city 
dwelling with Naboth. These official rep- 
resentatives of God are to proclaim a fast, 
and set Naboth at the head of the people, 
who held him in esteem because of his un- 
willingness to sell his inheritance; just as 
Jesus was esteemed for not permitting His 
Father's house to be made a house of mer- 
chandise. Jesiis was at the head of the peo- 
ple in that last week of his life, when the 
multitudes welcomed Him to Jerusalem, as 
their King; and came early every day to the 
temple to hear Him. Then it was that the 
Pharisees endeavored to entangle Him with 
the question of tribute, "that so they might 
deliver him unto the power and authority of 
the governor." (Luke xx. 20.) Failing in 



25 
this, they stooped to the same measures 
adopted by Jezebel. "Set two men, sons of 
Belial, before him to bear witness against 
him, saying. Thou didst blaspheme God and 
the king." It was the accusation made 
against Christ. And, since blasphemy 
against God w^ould not secure His convic- 
tion at the Roman tribunal, they insisted on 
their charge of treason; "Whosoever mak- 
eth himself a king, speaketh against Caesar;" 
a charge refuted, to the satisfaction of Pilate, 
by the answer, "My kingdom is not of this 
world." But the plenipotentiary is dwarfed 
to a pliant, marrowless, puppet, when the 
possibility of incurring the imperial ire is 
hinted at; "If thou let this man go, thou art 
not Caesar's friend;" the same intimidation 
which prevailed wdth the elders and nobles 
of Jezreel. The management of the Scribes 
and Pharisees originated with "that w^oman 
Jezebel;" yet her they execrated. They 
perceived that our Lord had spoken the 
parable of the wicked husbandmen against 
them, but their self-righteousness blinded 
them to their resemblance to her, wdio left 
less manliness to judges than to her eunuchs. 
Imagining mischief as a law, under the cloak 



26 

ot scrupulous formalities, they debased Re- 
ligion and Justice to the deep ditch of pros- 
titution; all which was according to the let- 
ter Avith the name and seal of her husband, 
which Jezebel sent to the nobles and elders: 
"Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high 
among the people; and set two men, sons of 
Belial before him, to bear witness against 
him, saying. Thou didst blaspheme God 
a7id king^ and carry hi??i out and stone hiin 
that he ?nay die^'* (i Kings xxi. lo.) The 
w^ords in italics begin with the accusation 
which availed to secure the execution of 
Jesus; and those words make up the sum of 
8SS. 



Not satisfied with the written accusation 
set up over His head, the Scribes and Phari- 
sees reviled Him as a boaster, imposter, and 
deceiver. They crucified two robbers with 
Him to injure His honor. By their derision 
they would take away any respect, which 
might still be lingering in the hearts of the 
people. "They that passed by reviled him, 
wagging their heads and saying, Thou that 
destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three 



27 

days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of 
God, come down from the cross. Likewise, 
also the chief priests mocking, with the 
scribes and elders, said, He saved others- 
himself he cannot save. If he be the king 
of Israel, let him now^ come dow^n from the 
cross, and w^e will believe him." (Matt, 
xxvii, 39-42.) This effort to stigmatize the 
suffering King of the Jew^s with the brand 
of falseness, was also' the policy of Senna- 
cherib with regard to Hezekiah, King of the 
Jews. To them he sent word, "Let not 
Hezekiah deceive you." (2 kings xviii, 29.) 
And in his letter, he endeavored to shake 
the faith of Hezekiah, himself. ''Let not 
thy God in whom thou trustest deceive 
thee." And so the chief priests with the 
scribes and elders wished to shake the faith 
of Christ: "He trusted in God; let him de- 
liver him now, if he will have him; lor he 
said, I am the Son of God." Their railings, 
and those of the robbers who "cast the same 
in his teeth," find an echo in the loud and 
frightful cries of the robber soldiers of Senna- 
cherib "against the Lord God and against his 
servant Hezekiah," and in the letters which 
he wrote to rail on the Lord God of Israel. 



28 

Never were such blasphemies uttered as on 
these two occasions; they harmonize, they 
blend with, they equal each other, And 
they become more alike, when w^e consider 
that they were all uttered on the same spot. 
Rabshakeh, and his great host, came and 
stood by the conduit of the upper pool, 
which is* in the highway of the fuller's field ; 
and that is by the hill of Calvary. This w^as 
the part of Jerusalem, left out by the builders 
of the wall; (Neh. iii, 8, in Hebrew Bible.) 
left out, because Jerusalem was to \i^ finished 
by Jesus. He enclosed what before had 
been left out. And the defence of this most 
exposed part was prayer. As the men 
on the wall held their peace, and answered 
not a word to Rabshakeh's blasphemous 
speech, so no response came, from Jesus, to 
the taunting enemy: but from the 22nd 
Psalm, we know that He was giving Him- 
self unto prayer, ''Be not thou far from me, 
O Lord; O my strength, haste thee to help 
me. Deliver my soul from the sword; my 
darling, (my Jerusalem, my church) from 
the power of the dog. Save me from the 
lion's mouth." And Hezekiah, wdien told 
of the words of Rabshakeh, sent to Isaiah, 



29 

saying, "lift up thy prayer for the remnant 
that are left." And when he had re- 
ceived the letter of Sennacherib, he "went up 
into the house of the Lord, and spread it be- 
fore the Lord. * * and prayed, * Lord, bow 
down thine ear and hear; open. Lord, thine 
eye and see." (2 Kings xix.) Prayer was the 
resort of these vilified Kings. Their pray- 
ers resembled each other, not only in ex- 
pressions of deep> distress, and earnest sup- 
plication, but in their hopefulness and confi- 
dence. Hezekiah asked to be heard and de- 
livered from the boasting unbeliever, that all 
the kingdoms of the earth might know that 
Jehovah only was God; and Jesus, after His 
mournful complaint, said, "Thou hast heard 
me from the horns of the unicorns. I will 
declare thy name unto my brethren; in the 
midst of the congregation wnll I praise thee. 
* * * ^\] ^hg ends of the world 
shall remember and turn unto the Lord; and 
all the kindreds of the nations shall worship 
before thee. For the kingdom is the Lords; 
and he is the governor among the nations." 
(Ps. xxii.) 

The prayers are alike, as the revilings 
were alike. God's favorable answer to Hez- 



30 

ekiah's prayer indicates the jDrevailing force 
of that intercession on the cross, by which 
the virgin the daughter of Zion is now en- 
abled to laugh to scorn the spiritual Senna- 
cherib. As the prayers of Christians are 
rendered available through their connection 
with Christ's intercession, so Hezekiah's 
prayer was connected with that intercession. 
The Amen of Jesus promotes the petition of 
Hezekiah; for the words, "And Hezekiah 
prayed before the Lord" (2 Kings xix. 15,) 
are 888. 



But there was a deeper horror than the 
exulting blasphemies which poured in on the 
soul of the crucified. This, in some degree, 
is an experience common to martyrs. Beasts 
are well represented by men when "truth 
faileth, and he that departeth from evil, 
maketh himself a" pre3^" Then humanity 
assumes the tempers of fat bulls of Bashan, 
lions, dogs and unicorns; it has employed 
their hungry savageness to satiate its own 
devouring rage: "after the manner of men, 
Paul fought with .beasts." Brutal passions 
stoned Zechariah in the court of the house of 



31 

the Lord. St. Stephen faced their fiery 
glare, as they gnashed on him with their 
teeth. But Zechariah could stay his soul by 
calling on God for vengeance. And Stephen 
was comforted by the vision of the glory of 
God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of 
God. But that same Jesus, hanging between 
heaven and earth, saw greater wrath above 
than the human hate rao^inof beneath Him. 
Like a bark-bared, headlegs tree, stretching 
out its broken branch as if to avert the black- 
ening bolt, was Jesus' exalted desertion. The 
cross concentrated the curse on Christ. ''He 
that is hanged is accursed of God." (Deut. 
XXI, 33.) The w^lthdrawal of Jehovah's fa- 
vour wrung from Him that bitter cry, "My 
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 
That dire desolateness defies description, but 
the deep downfall of Haman made suddenly 
afraid even while basking in the favour of 
Ahasuerus depicts the changed relationship 
between the Father and Him in w4iom His 
soul had delio-hted. "Then the Kinsr Ahasu- 
erus answ^ered and said unto Esther the 
queen, Who is he, and wdiere is he, that 
durst presume in his heart to do so? And 
Esther said. The adversary and enemy is 



32 
this wicked Haman. Then Hainan was 
afraid before the king and the queen. And 
the king arose from the banquet of wine in 
his wrath." (Esther vii, 5-7.) So the wrath 
of God rose up against Him who was ''made 
sin;" sin, which had plotted for the extinc- 
tion of this ^esthe?'^ this bright star, in the 
blackness of darkness forever; this mother 
earth carrying the unborn child of God, 
already "sold under sin." The whole crea- 
tion groaning and travailing in pain together, 
like fasting, fainting Esther pleaded against 
the former favorite. Him who was now sin 
in the abstract, overwhelmed with the tribu- 
lation and wrath in store for every sinning 
soul. The light of heaven was shut out of 
His soul, as they covered Haman's face; and 
the gibbet made for another became His 
cross. The king said, "Hang him thereon." 
The execution of the splendid, promoted 
courtier pacified the wrath of the king: and 
the execution of the royal, beloved Son of 
the Highest appeased the wrath of God. 
The words, "was the king's wrath pacified," 
(Esther viii, 10,) are 888. 

*The Hebrew word esther means a star. 



3$ 

The Jews hastened the burial of the Cruci- 
fied, because of the approaching Sabbath; 
and that there might be a Sabbath to the 
sea, the sailors took up Jonah, and cast him 
forth. The sign of the prophet Jonah was 
pointed out by the Lord, as tj'pical of His 
burial; "For as Jonah was three days and 
three nights in the whale's belly ; so shall 
the Son of Man be three days and three 
nights in the heart of the earth." (Matt, xii, 
40.) In the fulfilment of this prophecy, there 
was an ominous similarity to the sign. Our 
Lord was put to death for the same reason 
for which Jonah was thrown overboard; on 
account of the storm in the latter's case, and 
on account of the threatened national wreck, 
if Jesus were allowed to increase the number 
of His followers; "If we let him thus alone, 
all men will believe on him; and the Rom- 
ans shall come and take away both our place 
and nation." (John xi, 48.) And the advice 
given, that both these men must be sacrificed 
for the common good, was inspired. Jonah, 
a disobedient prophet, said, "Take me up, 
and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the 
sea be calm unto you; for I know that for 
my,sakethis great tempest is upon , you;" 



«: 



^ 



34 

aiad Caiaphas, because of his office, was gift- 
ed with the spirit of prophecy, and though 
wicked, spoke by inspiration; "Ye know 
nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedi- 
ent for us, that one man should die for the 
people, and that the whole nation perish not. 
And this spake he not of himself; but being 
high priest that year, he prophesied that Je- 
sus should die for that nation." (John xi, 49-51.) 
The miraculous preservation of Jonah, which 
our Lord points to as typical of His being in 
the heart of the earth, contains the number of 
the Sacred Name ; ^^Novj the Lord had f re- 
fared a great fish to swalloxu up yonah. 
And yo7iah was in the belly of the fish 
three days and three nights." (Jonah i, 17.) 
The words in italics add up S8S. (Mahan's 
Works vol. ii, p. 704.) The appropriate 
number is stamped on the account 
of that wonderful provision for sustain- 
ing life in the stifling heat, and fetidness of 
the whale's belly, which the Lord Himself 
declared had prophetic reference to His being 
in the lower parts of the earth. Jesus and 
the numerals interpret alike. But the S8S 
comes out again in the words, "Jehovah 
unto Jonah the second time." (Jonah iii, i.) 



35 

Jonah's second mission to the Ninevites was 
the reason for his preservation; and fore- 
shadowed Christ's second mission to the 
Jews, when he said to His disciples, "As my 
Father hath sent me, even so send I you." 
By His Apostles he goes to the wicked and 
adulterous generation, which He Hirriself 
had compared with the Ninevites. Twice 
the sacred number seals this type of our 
Lord's own selection; and the seals are affix- 
ed to the appropriate proofs. 



The preaching of those sent by Him, who 
had been dead and was alive again was like 
to that of Jonah, who cried, *'Yet forty days 
and Nineveh shall be overthrown." The 
first born from the dead, through them, pro- 
claimed, "blood and fire and pillars of smoke" 
to Jerusalem to be overthrown in forty years. 
Greater than Jonah was this Jesus, whom 
God had raised up, having loosed the pangs 
of death. He was the Christ of whom 
David was prophecying when he said, "Thou 
wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt 
thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption." 
Greater than David did this fulfilled prophe- 



36 

cy show Him to be, as the broken seal and 
the stone rolled away from the door of the 
sepulchre was a more glorious record than 
the epitaph on the quiet, sealed, time-honored 
sepulchre of the patriarch David. Much less 
had the sleeping David ascended into heaven 
and to Jesus therefore were applicable the 
words, "The Lord said unto my Lord, sit 
thou on my right hand until I make thy 
foes thy footstool." That same Jesus whom 
they had crucified, Peter and his fellow 
apostles, the prophecies, and the miraculous 
manifestations of the Holy Spirit atPentecost, 
all witnessed, God had made both Lord and 
Christ. This exaltation by the right hand 
of God, of the hated, pensecuted, falsely ac- 
cused, vilified, crucified Jesus, was shadowed 
forth in the enthronement of Solomon, con- 
spired against by Adonijah, Joabjand all the 
king's sons: "Then Solomon sat on the 
throne of the Lord as king instead of David 
his father, and prospered; and all Israel 
obeyed him." I Chron. xxix, 23. 

David's immediate successor, in the sta- 
bility, splendor, and extent of his kingdom, 
best represents Jesus to whom the Lord God 
has given the throne of His father David. 



37 

His government, like Solomon's, is made 
strong by the demolition of all antagonisms. 
The intercession of the Virgin mother would 
be of no avail to a plotting Adonijah. The 
shedder of innocent blood in vain clings to 
the horns of the altar. The hoar head 
of Shimei must be brought down wirh 
blood to the grave. By that throne 
stands the executioner, and he goes forth 
to slay at the word of Him that sitteth 
thereon. The Son's wrath is kindled but a 
little, and the dislo37al perish; but blessed are 
all they that trust in him. To the simple and 
needy He is favorable and preserves the souls 
of the poor. He delivers their souls from 
falsehood and wrong; and dear is their blood 
in His sight. Free access have the most ob* 
scure to Him; and He decides correctly the 
most difficult questions, as shown in Solo- 
mon's judgment with regard to the true 
mother of the living child. No problem is 
too difficult for him to solve. He could tell 
the queen ot Sheba things in heaven and 
earth not dreamt of in Solomon's philosophy. 
Christ, the wisdom of God, hath abounded 
toward us in all wisdom. In a larger sense 
it is true of Christ than of Solomon, "A.11 



38 

the earth sought to Solomon to hear his wis- 
dom." Science must derive its knowledge 
from Him, for He is the Maker of all things. 
Legislation must be based on His code, for 
He is the one Law-giver. We have this 
much of politics in our religion, as to assert 
that He is King of kings and Lord of lords; 
"Yea, all kings shall fall down before him; 
all nations shall serve him." The extent of 
His kingdom over the heathen, and to the 
utmost parts of the earth, is represented by 
the limits of the kingdom of Israel in the 
time of Solomon. "He reigned over all 
kingdoms from the river over the land of 
the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt, 
(i Kings iv, 21); thus realizing the promise 
to Abram, "Unto thy seed have I given 
this land, from the river of Egypt unto the 
great river ^ the river Euphrates" (Gen. xv, 

18.) 

Thus, in king Solomon's reign, we see 
the pattern of Christ's universal dominion; 
the Son of David breaking the raging heath- 
en w^ith a rod of iron; and dashing them in 
pieces like a potter's vessel; protecting His 
subjects, feeding the spiritually poor and 
needy; His people "many as the sand which 



39 

is by the sea in multitude, eating and drink- 
ing, and making merry." (I Kings iv, 20.) 
The particular acts of this King we do not 
know now; we learn them from types; now 
we see them through a glass darkly, in his- 
tory and providence; but shall we not here- 
after have access to the full and accurate ac- 
count of all His mighty, marvellous deeds, 
as of Solomon it is written, "And the rest of 
the acts of Solomon and all that he did, and 
his wisdom, are they not written in the book 
of the acts of Solomon ?" How vast will be 
the record of all this long, extensive reign, 
already eighteen centuries old, when of the 
acts, which Jesus did in three years on the 
earth, St. John says, "If they should be 
written every one, I suppose that even the 
world itself could not contain the books 
that should be written." 

To the Christian, the typical character of 
Solomon's reign is evident; and more so, as 
the things spoken of that king in such 
writings as the seventy-second Psalm 
go far beyond anything realized in 
the life of that monarch, and must be inter- 
preted of a greater than Solomon. And the 
same argument ought to convince the Jew, 



40 

The multitude were pricked in their heart j 
when St. Peter showed that the prophecies 
of David had not been fulfilled in him, and 
must have reference to Jesus, a man approv- 
ed of God amon^ them by miracles and 
signs and wonders. And the Jew, firmly 
believing in the prophecies contained in the 
73nd Psalm, knows well that they far ex- 
ceed any experience of Solomon; and he 
ought to conclude that they also hare refer- 
ence to Jesus, raised from the dead and ex- 
alted to the throne in heaven. But let the 
Jew apply the numerical test to this repre- 
sentation of Jesus in Solomon enthroned; 
and it is a test which he has no. right to 
think light of. The Jews jealously guarded 
the Old Testament Scriptures for many cen- 
turies. They would allow no alteration in 
the text, even where there was an evi- 
dent error. They noted every peculiarity; 
as, for instance, in Is. ix, 7, where mem final 
appears in the midst of a word, they take it 
for a great mystery, and give it a numerical 
value. '(x\ndrew's Pattern of Catechistical 
Doctrine, p. 45.) Is there not a great mystery 
in the numerical value of the name Jesus 
appearing so often and so appropriately in 



4^ 

the record of the lives of patriarchs and 
prophets? And this is more wonderful 
when we consider that the name, "Jesus" 
was not known whilst the patriarchs and 
prophets hved. It is a translation into the 
Greek language of the Hebrew name, 
Joshua; and before being translated this 
name underwent changes; the original 
Jehoshua being contracted, in process of 
time, to yeshua^ then the last letter was 
dropped, and finally the Greek termination 
was added. (Pearson on the Creed.) Now 
all these variations, developed in the course 
of centuries, led to the Name's reaching that 
form in which the letters count^ up 888. 
The leaving out, or the addition of a single 
letter would have been fotal to the combina- 
tion. This name was appropriated to Christ 
by the angel before "he was conceived in 
the womb." And the numerical value of 
that name is on, and indicates, the types of 
the Annunciation, the birth (as we shall see 
further on), the flight into Egypt, the bap- 
tism, the weeping over Jerusalem, the agony 
in the garden. His "accusation written," the 
crucifixion, the propitiation, the burial, the 
.resurrection of Jesus. Now I ask the 



42 

learned Rabbi to open his Hebrew Bible, at 
I Kings ii. 12, and add up, numerically, the 
letters forming the words translated, "And 
Solomon sat u^Don the throne of David." 
The sum is exactly 888? Has this no refer- 
ence to the Jesus whose history is linked to 
so many of the Old Testament worthies by 
the same 888. Do not the numbers confirm 
the inspired interpretation of the inspired 
prophcy, making a threefold cord not 
quickly broken? "Therefore being a 
prophet, and knowing that God had sworn 
with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his 
loins, according to the flesh, he would raise 
up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing 
this before spake of the resurrection of 
Christ. * * This Jesus hath God raised up." 
(Acts ii, 30.) Could there be a heartier 
assent to this jDroclamation than the 888 in 
the words, "Then sat Solomon upon the 
throne of David." The Name that is above 
every name revealing a glimpse of its glory, 
by arraying itself in all the glory of Solomon 
enthroned. Erase that superscription, and 
the crown and the w^isdom become vanity 
of vanities, all vanity. So it appeared to 
Solomon, absorbed in himself. "Then I 



43 

said in my heart, As it happeneth to the 
fool, so it happeneth even to me ; and why 
was I then more wise? Then I said in my 
heart, that this also is vanity." But read 
888 in the words, "Then sat Solomon on the 
throne of David," and thine eyes shall see 
the King in His beauty, the King unto 
whom every knee shall bow, of things in 
heaven, and in earth, and under the earth; 
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is 
Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 
(Phil, ii.) 



Solomon was predestined to build the 
temple: and in this also he prefigured the 
Lord Jesus who was to build a temple which 
should not be broken down as was Solo- 
mon's, nor burned as was that builded by 
Zerubbabel. Jesus was to build an enduring 
temple: Himself the chief corner stone; 
its foundations, the Apostles and prophets, 
"great stones, costly stones, hewed stones;" 
its walls, martyrs and saints, "overlaid with- 
in" with the unadulterated gold of truth; its 
courts, wide as the world, limited only by 
the horizon: its veil. His flesh, perfect man- 



44 

hood, represented by the bkie and purple 
and scarlet vail of the temple, concealing the 
Godhead. Not like the high priests of the 
Law was He, unable to hide, even beneath 
mitre and vestments, the Old Adam. Natural 
infirmity, the designs of men, the attacks of 
Satan found out weak spots in most of those 
elevated to that high calling. Aaron was 
not afraid to speak against the only prophet 
with Avhom God spake "mouth to mouth 
even apparently;" Eli honoured his sons 
above God; Abiathar was worthy of death, 
because a conspirator; Eliashib was the ally 
of the alien, for him desecrating the temple; 
Joshua w'as clothed in filthy garments; Caia- 
phas accused Jesus of blasphemy; and Anan- 
ias, a 'Hvhited w^all," commanded Paul to be 
smitten contrary to the law. In contrast with 
these, consider the Apostle, and High Priest 
of our profession, Christ Jesus, "in all points 
tempted like as we are; yet without sin;" 
"holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sin- 
ners." This High Priest builds a temple ac- 
ceptable to God. His name is in the proph- 
ecy, "He shall build the temple of the Lord: 
G\ t\\ he shall build the te7?iple of the Loi'd; 
and he shall bear the glory," (Zech. vi, 13.) 



45 

The words in italics are S8S. In verification 
of the prophecy that He was to be a priest 
upon His throne, we have St. Paul's asser- 
tion, "We have such an high priest who is 
set on the right hand of the Majesty in the 
heavens." The counsel of peace which was 
to be between them both, i. e., between the 
two offices of king and priest, or between 
those two offices combined, and God, is well 
represented by the accord between King Jo- 
siah and Hilkiah the high priest. They to- 
gether repaired the temple of the Lord, and 
when, in that repairing, the book of the law 
was found, they co-operated with each other 
in cleansing the temple, of idolatry, and after- 
ward they observed the feast of the passover 
as it had not been kept since the days of the 
judges; "the king commanded all the people, 
saying. Keep the passover unto the Lord your 
God, as wu'ittenin the book ot this covenant." 
The co-operation of these two officers, king 
and high priest, in obeying the book of the 
covenant reminds us of those words, "In the 
volume of the book it is written of me, I 
delight to do thy will, O my God: yea thy 
law is wMthin my heart." (Ps. xl. 8.) The 
obedience of the royal High Priest wdio said 



46 

"Not my will but thine be done," is set forth 
in those words of Josiah in II K. xxiii, 21. 
''Keep the passover unto the Lord your God 
as written in book of this covenant." The 
words in italics show it to be a part of the 
work ouj and of, 888, as they make precisely 
that number. 

The obedience of this King-High Priest 
involv^ed a tremendous sacrifice. By the 
rending of the vail, that is to say, by the suf- 
ferings of His flesh, He has obtained access 
to the presence of Jehovah. There, in 
heaven itself. He oflTers His own blood to 
make an eternal atonement. That blood 
does what the blood of bulls and goats could 
not, what the offering of the fruit of one's 
body could not effect, for the sin of the soul; 
it takes away sin, "cleanseth us from all sin." 
He is the propitiation for the sins of the 
whole world. One soul is of more value 
than the whole world. Tliis blood is worth 
all souls. To each soul it is worth Eternity. 
That eternity is any man's who by repent- 
ance and faith, holds fast the profession of 
hope, casting anchor within the vail. The 
untold worth of that blood is palely signified 
by the hecatombs, which drenched the altar, 



47 

when the temple was dedicated: "And 
King Solomon and all the congregation of 
Israel, that were assembled unto him, were 
with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep 
and oxen that could ?iot be told nor num- 
bered for multitude. The words in italics 
are the divine estimate of the ^"-precious blood 
of Christ:" their number is precisely 888. 

Whilst Jesus is within the vail interceding 
for us individually and collectively ; praying 
that where He is there His disciples may be; 
praying for him whom Satan desires to have 
that he may sift him like wheat, for the pur- 
ified Magdalen; presenting the maiden's 
prayer and the little child's; and with the 
voice of many waters, the litany of the great 
congregation, it becomes us to. be on our 
knees, having our bodies washed with pure 
water, keeping in memory His Sacrifice, not 
relying on our own righteousness. No man 
was allowed in the tabernacle of the congre- 
gation when the high priest went in to make 
an atonement in the holy place (Lev. xvi, 
17.) "No one was permitted by God to di- 
vide the honour and dignity of the Day of 
Atonement with Aaron the earthly high 
priest who was only a shadow of the true. 



48 

Shall anj^ one therefore dare to associate any 
creature in the great work of Atonement and 
Redemption and Intercession with Christ?" 
In this day of salvation, on this great day of 
Atonement, He is the only Priest officiating, 
our great High Priest who is passed into the 
heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Entire ab- 
stinence from work was enjoined on the great 
day of Atonement. May not this be to 
teach us rest and cessation from all trust in 
our own works as deserving merit? The 
injunction on the other great days at the 
Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles was, 
^^xvork not shall ye doP Levit. xxiii. The 
words in italics are 888. 



"The Lord turned the captivity of Job, 
when he prayed for his friends: also the 
Lord gave Job twice as much as he had be- 
fore. * * * He had also seven sons and 
three daughters. ^ ^ ^ And in all the 
land were no women found so fair as the 
daughters of Job," who had tru ly said, "I 
am escaped with the skin of my teeth" i. e., 
with nothing. In every respect, in posses- 
sions, in the sympathy of his acquaintance, 



49 

in his offspring, Job was better off; "so the 
Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than 
his beginning." And herein are intimated 
the rewards to accrue to Christ, because he 
has made intercession for the transgressors. 

Eliphaz and his two friends were command- 
ed by God to make Job their priest and in- 
tercessor; "Go to my servant Job, and ofter 
for yourselves a burnt offering; and my ser- 
vant Job shall pray for you : for him will I 
accept." And we are told to come by Christ 
unto God; (Heb. vii. 25.) 

This appointment of Job as intercessor 
took place after God had delivered to the 
Power of Satan all Job's possessions, his 
house, his work, his substance, his children, 
and finally his bone and his flesh: and our 
Lord, before he became the one Mediator 
between God and man, was led up (driven 
St. Mark says) of the Spirit into the wil- 
derness to be tempted of the devil. There 
Satan assailed him with his subtle, ingenious 
devices. Christ like Job lost all his posses- 
sions; "though he was rich, yet for your 
sakes he became poor." As the great wind 
from the wilderness smote the four corners of 
the house so that it fell upon Job's children 



50 

and they died, so the great storm came down 
on the lake, and faith died in the disciples so 
that they were called men, not disciples; 
"The men marvelled". Christ lost His chil- 
dren when they lost faith. Virtue went out of 
Him when he healed sicknesses and diseases; 
and the sufferings, which he witnessed caused 
in Him, keen pangs of sympathy: "in all 
their affliction he was afflicted." His country- 
men formed harsh judgments of Him; "we 
esteemed him smitten of God and afflicted." 
In the face of their suspicions and censures 
He maintains His integrity; "Which of you 
convinceth me of sin?" As Job expressed 
no hope of restoration to health and wealth 
in this present world, but looked forward to 
a resurrection, so Jesus set His face to meet 
persecution and crucifixion, looking beyond 
to the third day when He should rise again. 

/, / k7zow that my Redeemer liveth and 
the last (Adam) on dust (i. e. the dead) shall 
he arise (a quickening, life-giving spirit). Job 
xix, 25. The words in italics are 888. 

Both left their vindication with God. We 
have seen how thoroughly Job was vindicat- 
ed; and after "the man of sorrows" has fin- 
ished his mediatorial prayer, there will be a 



51 

restitution of all things; a new heavens and 
a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. 
Job "saw his sons and his sons' sons, four gen- 
erations:" and the sign of the Son of man 
(the cross) shall appear in heaven, and He 
shall send His angels and they shall gather 
His elect from the four winds, from the u^ 
termost part of the earth to the uttermost 
part of heaven. Thus in the restored pros- 
perity of the Gentile Job, the priest and in- 
tercessor, we see the reward of Him who is 
"the propitiation for our sins: and not for 
ours only, but also for the sins of the whole 
world." In Job, not an Israelite, but "the 
greatest of all the men in the east," "none 
like him in the earth, a perfect and an up- 
right man, one that feared God and eschewed 
evil," we see a type of the Lamb of God that 
taketh away the sin of the world. That the 
Catholic restoration in store for Him, who is 
to see His seed, and prolong His days, is 
taught in the account of the patriarch who, 
after his trials, "lived an hundred and forty 
years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons 
QWtnJ'our generations^ we infer from the 
value of the words in italics which are 888* 
It is the signature of Jesus to a book the 



52 

writer of which is not known to men; the 
endorsement of Him who is the Saviour of 
all men, the mark of the Good Shepherd 
who said, "Other sheep I have, which are 
not of this fold: them also I must bring, and 
they shall hear my voice; and there shall be 
one fold, one Shepherd." 



When the times of the restitution of all 
things shall have come, Christ's mediatorial 
office will be completed; "unto them that 
look for him shall he appear the second time 
without sin unto salvation." The devil, 
death, hell, and whosoever is not found writ- 
ten in the book of life, cast into the lake of 
fire; the thick cloud of transgressions re- 
moved. He shall come forth from the pres- 
ence of God, with whom is the well of life, 
as Isaac came from the way of the well La- 
hai-roi (which means life of vision.) And as 
he went out to meditate in the field at the 
eventide, anxious, and anticipating the return 
of the servant with the wife "whom the 
Lord had appointed out for his master's son," 
so Jesus at the end of this great day of 
Atonement, at the eventide of the world, 



53 

shall go out in the field of the serene sky, to 
anticipate and meet the consummation of His 
bliss. "The marriage of the Lamb is come, 
and his wife hath made herself ready (Rev. 
xix. 7.) "He lifted up his eyes, and saw, 
and, behold, the camels coming." So the 
heavenly bridegroom's eager vision will see 
from afar the approach of the Church, es- 
poused and escourted by the Apostle, to pre- 
sent her a chaste virgin unto Christ. "And 
Rebecca lifted up her eyes, and when she 
saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel. For she 
had said unto the servant, what man is this 
that walketh In the field to meet us. And 
the servant had said. It is my master: there- 
fore she took a vail, and covered herself:" 
so shall the Church, who has left her father's 
house, and forsaken all for Jesus, at the end 
of her earthly journey adorn herself and go 
forth to meet Him whom having not seen 
she has loved. Then shall the ministry give 
account wn'th joy as "the servant told Isaac 
all things that he had done. And Isaac 
brought her into his mother Sarah's tent," 
as Christ shall bring the Church within the 
cerulean curtains, the tent of the heavens. 
The great mystery of Christ and the Church 



54 

— "and Isaac took Rebecca, and she became 
his wife; and he loved her." He was 
chained by her attractive beauty not unaptly 
set forth in her name, Rebecca, which means, 
a cord with a noose. And Isaac in the glad 
captivity of. the nuptial tie was true to his 
name, which means laughter. In this mod- 
el marriage, which the Church holds up to 
all those who come to be joined in holy mat- 
rimony, we have a type of Christ who gave 
himself, and of the glorious Church which 
he shall present to himself not having spot 
or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and 
without blemish. That God V\^as leading 
Abraham's servant in the right way to take 
his master's brother's daughter unto his son, 
Laban and Bethuel recognized, for they 
said, "The thing proceedeth from the Lord: 
we cannot speak unto thee bad or good." 
And shall we not recognize the heavenly 
Father's purpose of providing a wife for His 
Son? When the father and brother give 
away the damsel they speak the name Jesus. 
The words, ^Het her be thy master^ s so7z*s 
wije^'^ are exactly 888. 



55 

Another manifest overruling of Providence 
in regard to Jesus Christ is the v^riting of the 
Book of Ruth. Apparently it is v^ritten for 
the express purpose of preserving a record of 
the descent in the line of Judah from Rahab 
to David ; and so making clear the descent of 
Jesus from Judah. The times of v^hich it 
speaks are those days of anarchy recorded in 
the latter part of the Book of the Judges. The 
events related in that portion of Scripture, 
took their rise in this same Bethlehem-Ju- 
dah, in which was welling up that pellucid 
spring of conscientious conduct channeled in 
Boaz ; piety, charity, chastity, fidelity to kin 
and the dead, honorable marriage. From 
out of this city of Bethlehem went forth 
these two streams; the one, almost lost in the 
bog of lust and slaughter, forcing its way out 
through the ravine of rapine; the other, 
quietly issuing forth in sanctified industry, 
bountifulness, continence, humble-minded- 
ness towards poor relations, and contentment 
with finding in marriage a virtuous v^'oman. 
The one was a demoralized democracy. "In 
those days there was no king in Israel: every 
man did that which was right in his own 
eyes." The other was a dutiful Dollarcracy, 



56 

(if the writer may coin the word) ambitious 
to be quiet and do its own business and re- 
warded by being made the progenitor of the 
future king who was to brnig order to the 
tribes of Israel, and lead them to conquest 
over the invadino: neig-hbors. 

The birth of this son of Boaz is the only 
one recorded in the Old Testament as takinof 
place in Bethlehem, and so is the birth typi- 
cal of that of Jesus happening in the same 
city; Mary coming from Nazareth, and Ruth 
from Moab, to become the mother of a Beth- 
lehemite. Another point of resemblance is 
the prophecies of the women. "And the 
women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the 
LORD, which hath not left thee without a 
redeemer, that his name may be flimous in 
Israel," reminding us of Anna the prophetess, 
"coming in that instant and speaking of Him 
to all them that looked for redemption in 
Jerusalem. (Luke ii, 38.) 

The son of Boaz and Ruth represents Je- 
sus in His pre-existence : "he is the father of 
Jesse, the father of David." It is the only 
instance in the Old Testament where at his 
birth the new-born child is pointed out as a 
father. It is like that prophecy of Isaiah, 



57 

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a 
son is given * * * and his name shall 
be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The 
Mighty God, The everlasting Father." 
"He is the father of Jesse, the father of Da- 
vid," and so represents Jesus who is not only 
the offspring of David, but also the Root 
of David. 

This pre-existence our Lord claimed in 
those words, "Verily, verily, I say unto you. 
Before Abraham was, I am;" appropriating 
to Himself the Divine Name selected and ex- 
plained by God Himself, "I AM THAT I 
AM." (Ex. iii. 14.) For this modest self- 
assertion of Jesus, content with dating His 
existence before Abraham's time, when He 
mio;ht have dated it before the mountains 
were brought forth, the Jews took up stones 
to cast at Him ; mortals attempting to mob 
the Self-Existent. "Not yet fifty years old," 
enduring such contradiction from sinners, 
accused of having a devil, and His. life threat- 
ened. He would be an object of greater rever- 
ence and worship than He can be now on the 
throne of David, at the Right Hand of 
God, our great High Priest who is 
passed into the heavens, if we regard 



58 

Him only as the son of Mary. He is the son 
of Mar V, the seed of the woman; He is also 
the Root of David, the Eternal. The name 
which the women ofave to the child of Ruth 
has reference to the condescension of Him 
who, subsisting in the form of God did not 
deem His co-equality with God to be a thing 
stolen, a spoil, but made himself of no repu- 
tation, and took upon him the form of a ser- 
vant. "And the women her neigdibours 
gave it a name, saying, There is a son born 
to Naomi; and they called his name Obed," 
which means a servant. The son of this 
"mighty man of wealth," (Ruth ii. i.) is call- 
ed Obed, or servant, to represent the Son of 
the Mighty God, who "took upon him the 
form of a servant, and was made in the like- 
ness of men." This strange choice of a 
name for the onlv begfotten of Boaz was not 
without the direction of ttie Holy Spirit, not 
without reference to the Anti-type who was 
among His disciples as he that serveth. 

Neither may we apply the words of the 
women wholly to Obed; "And the women 
said to Naomi * * * And he shall be unto 
thee a restorer of life and a nourisher of 
thine old asre." He chansred the bitterness of 



59 

her lot to pleasantness and the hopes which 
he inspired gave new life to her old age: but 
those remarkable prophecies must have refer- 
ence to one who really is to restore life, and 
change the hoariness of wrinkled age back to 
the curling locks of primal vigor. The 
prophecies of the women concerning the 
child which Naomi laid in her bosom find 
their full meaning in that child whom aged 
Simeon "took up in his arms and blessed 
God, and said. Lord now lettest thou thy 
servant depart in peace according to thy 
word: for mine eyes have seen thy salva- 
tion." The "end of their conversation" was 
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, 
and forever. Those words, "And he shall 
be unto thee a restorer of life," (Ruth iv. 15,) 
are exactly 888. 

Jesus not only claimed to be pre-existent 
and applied to Himself the Ineffable Name, 
but He put Himself on a par with the Crea- 
tor as to His works. When He was accused 
of breaking the Sabbath, He made His de- 
fence as God, not as man: "My Father 
worketh hitherto, and I work;" asserting 
His co-operation with the Father in the sus- 
tentation of all creation — more than the 



6o 

mythical Atlas, upholding the heavens, sus- 
taining mankind, repressing devils. The 
Jev\^s understood Him as asserting equality 
with the Father; "Theiefore the Jev\fs 
sought the more to kill him, because he not 
only had broken the Sabbath, but said also 
that God was his Father, making himself 
equal with God." (John v. r8.) This up- 
holding of all things is perhaps beyond rep- 
resentation. But the eight hundred and 
eighty-eight goes back further than the 
creation of types. It points out Jesus Christ 
before shadows and types were created,"while 
as yet he had not made the earth, nor the 
fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the 
world." The very first time that the two 
names, Jehovah and Elohim (the latter used 
in the first chapter of Genesis, and the form- 
er the name interpreted by God Himself) the 
first time these names are coupled together 
in the Bible (Gen. 11,4.) they are made, with 
the context, to read the number of Jesus; 
"the Lord God made" is exactly 888. Ma- 
han says, "Jesus is here identified with Jeho- 
vah." Thus the 888 in Gen. 11. 4, verifies 
tlie words of Jesus ni John v. 17, "My 
Father worketh hitherto and I work." 



6i 

Jehovah is no other than Elohim by whom 
all things were made; and Jesus is Jehovah. 



This cumulative Number indicates the 
Divinity as well as the humanity of Jesus. 
The creation of the world is attributed to 
888; and the types, which are recognized as 
those of Christ, becomingly wear the Num- 
erical Name. History has been challenged 
to produce another instance of a great man's 
career foreshadowed by the events and ex- 
periences of preceding centuries. In vain do 
we look for a concurrent agreement in the 
acts of men of various centuries and countries 
to set forth the life, the actions and offices of 
Caesar, Alexander, or Socrates, or any other 
than Jesus Christ. As regards Him, this 
agreement is plainly evident, and the type- 
character of those histories is verified, and 
asserted by the presence of 888. It not only 
comes out very appropriately and timely in 
the course of the naratives, but it also haunts 
the localities to be visited by Jesus. It 
hides in the reedy Nile whither the young 
child was taken for concealment. It rests 
on the well on w^hich Jesus sat. It emphasizes 



62 

the words of Moses declaring the divine ap- 
pointment of his successor, near Mt. Abarim ; 
in the neighborhood of which John bare 
record of Him, who, coming after him, was 
preferred before him. Of the former it maj^ 
be said as it is of the hitter: " These thingfs 
were done in Bethabara, beyond Jordan." 
It is lead in the rock of the Arabian 
desert, where our Lord fasted. It is 
clear as crystal in the tears of David on 
Mt. Olivet, where Jesus also wept over the 
city. It is the night-born bloom of Geth- 
semane; for that was probably one of the 
king's gardens, and in it Solomon may be 
supposed to locate the scene in Chapter V of 
the Song of Songs, It is breathed forth in 
Hezekiah's imprecation on the revilings and 
blasphemies poured forth on the same spot 
on which the Scribes and Pharisees reviled 
Him, wagging their heads. 

The scenes of notable events, heroic deeds, 
great sufferings, martyrdoms, are often mark- 
ed by the erection of monuments, on which 
are recorded the facts, and the name or names 
of the actors: but the scenes of our Lord's ex- 
periences, great deeds, suffering, and martyr- 
dom, were pointed out and made prominent. 



63 

centuries before His appearance, by corres- 
ponding acts. Before the embodiment of 
the events, the monuments were put in place, 
the future deeds outlined, and more than that, 
the NAME was INSCRIBED. 

And when The Lord passes beyond the 
earthl}^ sphere, the earthly types still set 
forth and are faithful to His unearthly life. 
Jonah, at the bottom of the mountains, the 
earth with her bars about him, represents the 
Son of Man's sojourn "in the heart of the 
earth;" Solomon on the throne of David, 
His session at the right hand of God; the 
"sacrifices that could not be told nor number- 
ed for multitude," His inestimable Sacrifice; 
His gathering together of His elect from the 
four winds is represented by the four genera- 
tions which Job saw after his afflictions; His 
marriage, in the giving away of Rebecca to 
Isaac. We have seen how the 888 in the 
Old Testament indicates the resemblances to 
our Lord's life as set forth in the Gospels; 
we must accept the verity of 888 as to what 
is beyond our vision and in process of fulfill- 
ment. For fourteen hundred and ninety 
years, we have it tested : for the present and 



64 

future we credit it; it has proved itself worthy 
of belief. 

This phenomenon of 888 proves the In- 
sj^iration of Scripture. We accept the Old 
Testament as inspired, because it is authenti- 
cated by prophecies fulfilled, and by miracles. 
Here is a proof in addition, Niebuhr claimed 
that early Roman dates were arranged by 
priests because of the remarkable recurrence 
of such significant figures as Four, Six, 
Twelve, Thirty (Mahan p. 257) : but who 
would assert that the recurrence of 888 
throughout the Old Testament was the work 
of priests. There is stronger proof of de- 
sign here than in the numerical symmetries 
of the early Roman annals; but it is a design 
beyond the grasp of the human mind. The 
books of the Old Testament were written in 
various countries and during a period of 
eleven hundred years: could there have been 
collusion between the several writers? Can 
we suppose them to have been so skilled in 
the art of numerical writing as to have been 
able to bring out so frequently and apposite- 
ly this number 888? Could they have had 
the prophetical knowledge of its application 
to yesus^ a name in a language which they 



65 

did not understand, a name which was not 
known when they wrote? Is it not rational 
to accept St. Peter's assertion that "holy 
men of God spake as they were borne along 
by the Holy Ghost;" writing of past events, 
presenting scenes in or near their own times, 
carried away with their subject, they were 
also borne along, driven as it were, by waves 
and wind to unconsciously speak of Jesus : 
He who sculptures with the wind and torrent, 
chiseling the snow-drift and fretting the 
rock, bringing out in bass-relief the likeness 
of His holy servant Jesus. 

The persistent re-appearance of the Num- 
ber as an index-finger, is more marvellous 
than that coming forth of the fingers of a 
man's hand and writing over against the can- 
dlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the 
king's palace. (Dan. v). If that phenome- 
non troubled Belshazzar "so that the joints 
of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote 
one against another," ought not this Infalli- 
ble Hand of Omniscence, coming forth again 
and again on the pages of Holy Writ, dis- 
may those who do not simply put to a com- 
mon use what is holy, but denounce the Holy 
Word as false, foolish, and filthy. 



66 

If this manifestation of 888 is accepted as 
God's work, then the Scriptures on which it is 
stamped must be accepted as true. God 
cannot he (Titus i, 2). It is impossible for 
God to he (Heb. vi, 18). What is proved 
to be in His handwriting must be true. 

An example of God's truthfulness is fur- 
nished in His warfare on god-making, which 
is lie-making; His own characterization of 
idol-manufacture. Read His own descrip- 
tion of "Demetrius and the craftsmen that 
are with him," in the forty-fourth chapter of 
Isaiah concluding with the words, "He 
feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath 
turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his 
soul, nor say. Is there not a lie in my right 
hand?" The man that makes a god makes 
an abomination, a lie. The InfalHble Hand 
comes forth to inscribe "counterfeit" on 
idolatry in the words, T/le^^ yacob said un- 
to his household (888) and to all (87) that 
were xvith him. Put axvay (888) the strange 
gods that are among you. (These two are 
taken from Mahan). Jacob dared not accept 
God's invitation to Bethel with strange gods 
in his household, and after they were "put 
away" it is said, "the terror of God" was up 



67 

on the cities that \vere round about 
them, just as the terror of God was up- 
on the astonished Nebuchadnezzar and he 
"rose up in haste * * * * and came near to 
the mouth of the burning fiery fur- 
nace, and spake, and said * * ^ * ye servants 
of the most high God, come forth and come 
hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and 
Abed-nego came forth of the midst of the 
fire." So out of the ''furnace exceeding 
hot" of criticism come forth the Scriptures 
not only authenticated by miracles and ful- 
filled prophecy, but by the sign-manual of 
888; and we may say, no other than God can 
write after this sort, as Nebuchadnezzar de- 
clared, "there is no other God that can de- 
liver after this sort." 

Another manifest token of Omniscient In- 
spiration, of the control of the Holy Ghost 
over the thoughts of men, is displayed in the 
relation of Nebuchadnezzar's first dream. To 
his demand that they should tell him his 
dream in order that he might be certified of 
their ability to interpret,theChaldeans replied : 
"There is not a man upon the earth that can 
shew the king's matter:" an assertion which 
was falsified in answer to the prayers of Dan- 



68 

iel and his companions. "Then was the se- 
cret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision." 
He had no doubt of the identity, or the inter- 
pretation of the revelation. With confidence 
he asked to be brought before the king, and 
his retentive nnemory constructed the colossal 
image, distinguishing its different parts by 
the proper metals, even to the toes made of 
iron and clay ; and his interpretation of it as 
an emblematic illustration of the four great 
world-empires has been verified by the de- 
velopments of the succeeding ages. "The 
stone cut out of the mountain without hands," 
all hostile critics acknowledge, has reference 
to the kingdom of Christ established with- 
out human help. The ability to interpret 
was proven to the satisfaction of Nebuchad- 
nezzer, and he "fell upon his face and wor- 
shipped Daniel, and commanded that they 
should offer an oblation and sweet odours un- 
to liim. The king answered unto Daniel, 
and said. Of a truth it is, that your God is a 
God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a re- 
vealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal 
this secret." This gift of insight into the 
thoughts of others was a gift common among 
Christians in St. Paul's time. He commends 



69 

it thus to the Corinthians; — "but if all pro- 
phesy, and there come in one that believeth 
not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, 
he is judged of all; and thus are the secrets of 
his heart made manifest; and so falling down 
on his face he will worship God, and report 
that God is in you of a truth" (i Cor. XIV, 
25). Such a power proves the gift of Inspi- 
ration, "for what man knoweth the things of a 
man, save the spirit of a man which is in him ?" 
The supernaturalness of the gift was also 
shown in the youth of the receiver. The 
seventeen-year-old captive eclipsed the wisest 
of the earth. They had asserted, "there is no 
king, lord nor ruler, that asked such things 
at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean. 
And it is a rare (heavy, hard) thing that the 
king requireth;and there is none other that 
can show it before the king, except the gods, 
whose dwelling is not with flesh." The boy- 
prophet stood the test, and his thanksgiving 
to God reminds us of those exulting words 
of Christ, when He "rejoiced in spirit and 
said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven 
and earth, that thou hast hid these things 
from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed 
them unto babes; even so, Father, for so it 



70 

seemed good in thy sight." — (Luke X, 21.) 
The foolishness of God was showing itself 
to be wiser than the wisest of men. 

This unique trial of the wisdom of men 
well represents John's vision in the fifth chap- 
ter of Revelations: "x\nd I saw in the ri^ht 
hand of him that sat on the throne a book 
written within and on the back side, sealed 
with seven seals. And 1 saw a strong 
angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is 
worthy to open the book, and to loose the 
seals thereof ? And no man in heaven, 
nor in earth, neither under the earth, was 
able to open the book, neither to look there- 
on." A harder task than that set the maori- 
cians, soothsayers, and astrologers, for here 
neither heaven,nor earth, nor what is under the 
earth could produce a man to solve the 
enigma. A greater than Daniel the prophet 
must meet the emergency, and He whom 
Daniel represents comes forwaid: "And 
1 wept much, because no man was found 
worthy to open and to read the book, neith- 
er to look thereon. And one of the elders 
saith unto me, Weep not; behold, the Lion of 
the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath 
prevailed to open the book, and to loose the 



71 

seven seals thereof." The havoc of consterna- 
tion Is remedied by Prophecy. On each 
scene, only one comes forward able to reveal 
the secret. And the secret revealed by the 
one is similar to that revealed by the other- 
Daniel foretells the five w^orld-empires, ex- 
tending to the end of time; and the Lamb un 
seals prophecy to the end of the world. The 
difference between the two is that Daniel dis- 
claims having any wisdom more than any 
Hying, and acknowledges the receipt of the 
Revelation, and the Lion of the tribe of Ju- 
dah, the Root of David takes the book and 
opens it by His own prevailing wisdom. 
Daniel is inspired; Jesus is the source of In- 
spiration. Daniel is the type of the wisdom 
of Christ, and the SSS recognizes him as such. 
It is the hour of dark despair to the wise men 
of Babylon, but Daniel is blessing the God of 
heaven. Amid the encircling obscurity flash- 
es forth the splendor of Revelation: ''He re- 
vealeth the deep and secret things; he know- 
eth what is in the darkness, and theUgJii 
with him dwellethP (Dan. ii. 22) The 
words in italics are exactly SSS. 

This is the Head of the Church, Christ 
Jesus, "from whom the whole body fitly 



72 

joined together and compacted by that which 
every joint supplieth, according to the effect- 
ual working in the measure of every part, 
maketh increase of the body, unto the edify- 
ing of itself in Ic e." And this body derives 
life from the head because it has been par- 
taker in His death; "dead with Christ from 
the rudiments of the world," i. e. from the 
Powers of Nature, the elements, the planets, 
which were before worshiped. What is this 
but what was enacted on a small scale, rep- 
resented by the lords of the Philistines, 
gathered together to offer a great sacrifice 
unto Dagon, their god (Judges xvi. 23), and 
the next moment, in the very act of praising 
their god, dragged down to death with 
Samson, partakers in his death; his greatest 
conquest; "so the dead which he slew at his 
death were more than they which he slew in 
his life." And it was the achievement of a 
similar and greater conquest which nerved 
the Saviour to willingly die. "I, if I be 
lifted up, will draw all men unto me"; draw- 
ing them into the ruin of death, unto sin that 
they might live with Him; "ye are dead, 
and your life is hid with Christ in God." So 
this Samson who has dragged us down 



73 

with Him in death, now imparts His life to 
us, His members. His body. "Of His fulness 
we all partake." "Unto every one of us is 
given ^^race according to the measure of the 
gift of Christ, for the edifying of the body of 
Christ, till we all come in the unity of the 
faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of 
God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure 
of the stature of the fulness of Christ;" 
humanity attaining in Christ unto unity, 
grace, and perfection. This is that ideal, 
Christianized, humanity, which is to break in 
pieces and consume that other presentation 
of ideal humanity produced by human 
power, guided by human wisdom, consoli- 
dating the kingdoms of this world, as set 
forth in the colossal image with the head of 
gold revealed to Nebuchadnezzar. Of this 
indestructible permanent kingdom, Christ is 
the Head. His relation to its members is 
that of the head to the body. He may be 
said to be full of .men and women, as it is 
said in the story of Samson (Judges xvi. 27), 
"Now the house wdiS>Jullof?nen and women y'^ 
the italics making 888; "the measure of the 
stature of the fulness of Christ." 

Lack of time prevents the bringing for- 



74 

ward of other instances of this number 
stamped upon the types of Christ. But 
enough have been produced to show that it is 
the number of Jesus; making distinct the sev- 
eral types, preventing confusion between 
them, showing the bearing of each on the 
anti-type, giving us all the features of Christ's 
portrait. With this key we unlock the se- 
crets of His life, and offices. It points out 
(i) that great myster}', the Annunciation of 
the Incarnation by the message of an angel, 
(2) our Lord's flight into Egypt, (3) the bough 
of fruits, (4) His public consecration (5) His 
pity, (6) His agony in the garden, (7) Him 
falsely accused, (8) His prayer on the cross, 
(9) His ignominious death, (10) His burial, 
( 11) the continuation of His mission in the 
Apostles, (12) the universal sovereignty of 
the vSon of David, (13) the Builder of the tem- 
ple of the Lord, (14) "Christ our Passover," 
"as written in book," (15) the untold worth 
of His Sacrifice, (16) Its sufficiency, (17) His 
descent from heaven to raise "the dead in 
Christ," (18) "the day of judgment and per- 
dition of ungodly men,"*(i9) the restitution of 



*An SSS in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrha was over- 
looked. It is one found by Mahan : "And they said, stand baeh. 
And they said. This one [SSS] came in to sojourn, and he will 



75 

all things, (20) His Marriage, (21) His two 
Natures, (22) His identity with Jehovah, (23) 
His speech to His Household of Faith, (24) 
against idolatry, (25) the Lamb opening the 
■seven seals, (26) the fulness of Christ. 

If an artist were to represent Christ in 
the various scenes given ir^%the New Testa- 
ment,and were to look for corresponding sub- 
jects in the Old Testament, could he find 
twenty -six better than those on which we 
have discovered the 888 ? Putting the Gos- 
pel pictures side by side with the prophetical, 
none would deny the analogy; the emblems 
would often be pronounced exquisite; design 
would be granted; taste would be appreci- 
ated; praise would be accorded. But the 
artist could not claim originality. The dis- 
cretion of selection has not been left him. 
The 8S8 has indicated the Old Testament 
character which shall represent any partic- 
ular incident in our Lord's experience. Now 
shall we grant that there is design, method, in 
the artist's work of following, of copying; 

needs be a judg-e," [Gen. xix. 9,] They thrust back the judg-e, 
and rig-ht behind the rejected judge, ''Behold, the Judg-e stand- 
eth at the door !" smites them with blindness, and rains down 
lire and brimstone, from the Lord, out of heaven, on Sodom 
and Gomorrha, which are thus "set forth as an example, suffer- 
ing- the veng-eance of eternal fire." 



76. 

and shall we fail to trace design in that 
which he copies ? 

It is another proof of the Unfathomable 
Wisdom of God; and may well cause the pro- 
phets, "unto whom it was revealed that not 
unto themselves, but unto us they did minis- 
ter," to exclaim ''Not unto us, O Lord, not 
unto us, but uflb Thy NAME give the 
praiseJ' 



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